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Comment The trojan needs an admin password (Score 1) 757

by brainfsck (#27606619) Attached to: Zombie Macs Launch DoS Attack

people are talking about how poorly designed Windows security is and how the user usually always runs as "administrator"

Speaking of always running as administrator, it may interest you to know that the trojan requires the user to manually enter an administrator password before it can spread on the latest version of OS X.

So no, it's not a "double standard" to point out that double-clicking an .exe file can root your PC, but you need to enter an administrator password to get a trojan running on OS X.

Comment The one time I try to RTFA... (Score 5, Informative) 396

by brainfsck (#27565869) Attached to: Was the Amazon De-Listing Situation a Glitch Or a Hack?
I clicked on the link about hackers claiming credit for the Amazon hack expecting to find to find a professional web site about computer security.

Instead, I got a bizarrely colored and (hopefully) satirical blog containing articles titled "Amazon is a Gay-Hating Company for Nazis".

That'll teach me for trying to RTFA.

Comment Re:One additional point: (Score 2, Informative) 767

by brainfsck (#27006879) Attached to: US District Ct. Says Defendant Must Provide Decrypted Data
No, they can just hold him in prison until he complies with the order:

"once the party complies with the court's order, the sanction is lifted. The imposed party is said to "hold the keys" to his or her own cell, thus conventional due process is not required."

(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contempt_of_court#United_States)

Comment Re:The Ammendment (Score 2, Insightful) 767

by brainfsck (#27006769) Attached to: US District Ct. Says Defendant Must Provide Decrypted Data
Way to patronize someone who clearly knows far more about law than you do.

The government can force you to give them access to the contents of a safe by giving them the keys.

Giving the password to a collection of encrypted files is pretty similar to giving the keys to a safe full of incriminating documents. Therefore, it's entirely reasonable to argue that the government has the right to force the defendant to provide the "key" to his incriminating data.
Networking

Bell's Own Data Exposes P2P As a Red Herring 261

Posted by timothy from the just-wanted-to-say-canadian-throttling-front dept.
dougplanet writes with news from the Canadian-throttling front: "As ordered by the CRTC, Bell has released (some) of its data on how torrents and P2P in general are affecting its network. Even though there's not much data to go on, it's pretty clear that P2P isn't the crushing concern. Over the two-month period prior to their throttling, they had congestion on a whopping 2.6 and 5.2 per cent of their network links. They don't even explain whether this is a range of sustained congestion, or peaks amongst valleys."
The Courts

Supreme Court Holds Right to Bear Arms Applies to Individuals 2221

Posted by timothy from the founders'-rolling-speed-reduced-slightly dept.
Now.Imperfect writes "In its last day of session, the Supreme Court has definitively clarified the meaning of the Second Amendment. The confusion is whether the Second Amendment allows merely for the existence of a state militia, or the private ownership of guns. This ruling is in response to a case regarding the 32-year-old Washington DC ban on guns." This is one of the most-watched Supreme Court cases in a long time, and Wikipedia's page on the case gives a good overview; the actual text of the decision (PDF) runs to 157 pages, but the holding is summarized in the first three. There are certainly other aspects of the Second Amendment left unaddressed, however, so you can't go straight to the store for a recently made automatic rifle.
The Internet

Submission + - SPAM: Researchers tout new-fangled network worm weapon

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "Can Internet worms be thwarted within minutes of their infection? Researchers at Ohio State University say they can and they have the method to prove it. The key, researchers found, is for software to monitor the number of scans that machines on a network send out. When a machine starts sending out too many scans — a sign that it has been infected — administrators should take it off line and check it for viruses. In a nutshell, the researchers developed National Science Foundation funded a model that calculated the probability that a virus would spread, depending on the maximum number of scans allowed before a machine was taken off line."The difficulty was figuring out how many scans were too many," researchers said. [spam URL stripped]"
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